Glossary of Terms for Beginners
Below is a list of terms that you'll regularly find throughout DarkBlue.
EPC: Earnings Per Clicks. This statistic will let you know what the quality of the traffic going to the advertiser is like. EPC will give you a guide as to how much money you can expect to make per click.
CTR: Click Through Rate. The click through rate is expressed as a percentage and is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of creative impressions. The CTR is a vital statistic for calculating the effectiveness of a particular creative such as a banner, link or pop up. After running a variety of creatives for a few days or weeks, you will be able to increase the use of particular creatives that perform well.
CPA: Cost Per Acquisition or Cost Per Action. The CPA is specific to each advertiser. For example, Advertiser A may pay you a commission for a sale through their website while Advertiser B may pay a commission for completed forms you deliver to their site. Check the terms and conditions of each advertiser to be sure.
CPL: Cost per Lead. This refers to how much an advertiser will pay you for a lead.
Content building without the hard work
Here are three simple ways to add fresh content to your site- without making it hard work. Adding fresh content is great way to get return visitors. Just think, with every visitor that returns to your site, you've just created another opportunity to close a sale and make commission.
1. Start a Blog
With simple to set up and use software such as "Movable Type" or "Blogger", you can quickly add new content to your site. Blogs are like online journals and are extremely easy to set up. Once yours is up and running all you have to do is type your content into the program and simply press the "Publish" button. Your new content is instantly updated on your website. Blogs can give your site a "personality" and help you move potential customers through to your advertisers site.
These are great tools for getting user feedback also. You can set up your blog so that users can post comments- instantly providing content for others to read without having to do a thing!
2. Add free content/news
Advertisers on DarkBlue are starting to include data feeds in the "Advertisement" area of their campaigns. Place these on your site and you will have dynamically generated content. Keep an eye out for the data feeds and you'll find you don't have to write a word to have fresh content on your site.
3. Newsletters
These can be simply letting people know about new products or services that are now available through your site. Make sure to include a brief description and provide a link back to your site (or directly to your advertisers product/service page). Provide an email form with a double opt-in action to make sure your newsletters aren't regarded as spam.
Tell them what to do and they will do it
You've chosen an advertiser based on the theme and content of your site, you've read a bit about SEO or have a PPC campaign running to build your traffic. The hits on your site are rising but your click through rate (CTR) isn't. What's going on?
Well, first look at the content on your pages that contain affiliate links. Do they give the visitor clear information and benefits about the product or service that you're promoting? If they don't- that's the first thing to work on. If they do then read on…
Does your content clearly and simply tell your visitors what you want them to do next? Do you give them clear instructions telling them how to buy/download/sign up to your advertisers product/service?
Add call to action statements such as "Click here". Or add links within your content. Doing these things will give your visitors a clear path to your desired action and you should see a boost in your CTR.
Banners, buttons, text links - Which creative works best?
Due to the nature of the web and the unique behaviour of its users, it is impossible to say that banners will perform better than text links. Or pop-ups are better then pop-unders. One thing is for sure, you can find out which type of creative performs best for your site and your advertisers.
Test. Testing is the most effective way to find out which creative is most effective on your visitors.
- Experiment with the placement of your banners;
- Try placing them above your text,
- In the center of your text,
- To the left of the page,
- On the index page, and
- On specific product/services pages.
- Choose different sizes of banners and again test the positions.
- Try placing text links under a heading titled "Sponsored Products" or
- Scatter the links throughout the text of your page.
For example, if you're promoting an advertiser that sells computer monitors, you may try linking though your text like this: "Computer monitors for sale online are usually much cheaper than those bought at your local retailer". The more links you have, the more opportunities your visitors have to leave your page and go to your advertisers site.
If you are going to Test, you must Track.
Make sure you have recorded the details of your test and the date it began. You could leave the test on your page for one week or four- it's up to you. Make sure you record the results (increase or decrease in CTR) at the end of your test. Then test again until you've found the most effective combination for your site.
